New Territory
by Hotaru Inoue
Summary: Forced into an entirely new world with man-eating giants called Titans that are dead set on eradicating humanity, Haruno Sakura struggles to adapt to this new dystopia while realising that her life would never be the same again (and in more ways than one).
1. I: A Place Unknown

**New Territory: Chapter One (19/07/17)**

 **I:** **A Place Unknown**

* * *

 _A cry, a sob, a scream. It's her, she realises, but she can only see black, a void. She screams again, louder. The darkness is polluting her mind, insanity destroying her from the inside out. She tears up,_ _frustration, anger and hatred clawing at her._

 _Then, there's_ _a soft hand. There's a calm voice, one that speaks with a solemn reassurance. The hand rests on her head, stroking her hair with the utmost care and delicacy. She leans into it, clinging onto it with hope._

 _'There are a million_ _ways we should have died before today, and a million ways we could die before tomorrow. But we fight, for every minute we get to spend together. Even in the hell we call reality, Sakura, I don't want to give that up...'_

 _For a moment, a single second, she thinks she's safe. She cries out in relief,_ _but the voice slowly fades away, and the hand disappears. She reaches out, desperate. Where did they go? She's cold again, the warmth dying rapidly._ _She shivers._

 _'Don't go!'_

* * *

She gasped, shooting upright as the last remnants of her dream fading away. It was a strange dream, a nightmare, but as she tried to grasp onto it more fragments slipped away.

Sakura shook her head, clearing her thoughts, and slowly opened her eyes. She vaguely noticed the dull ache of her arm as she sat up, the rough texture of the bark beneath her scratching at her elbows.

"What happened?" She muttered, squinting to shield her eyes from the bright light of the sun. She tried to recall the events from the night before but her she couldn't remember anything. Her head pounded sharply, almost like it was protesting at her effort.

Her drowsiness immediately disappeared. Alarm rose within her, accompanied by worry and fear. Sakura's hands fell to her kunai instinctively, fingers curling around the cool metal. The weapons brought her comfort and eased her but only slightly. She didn't know where she was. Or why. She breathed steadily, calming her nervous heartbeat and narrowed her eyes.

Where was she?

"I'm lost," she said, stating the obvious moments later. "In a strange forest with trees double the sizes of those in Konoha." Her mind scrambled for an explanation, but anything she thought of only pointed towards more questions.

"I could be drunk," she mused, only half-serious. "The symptoms are there."

Her theories died out one after the other, all either too unrealistic, too confusing or just plain ridiculous. She sighed, defeated.

"I should just look around. Maybe there's still someone here."

She wandered around the forest aimlessly but cautiously, hands never straying far from her kunai. She was pulled back abruptly when her sleeve caught on a twig and tore her skin. She hissed, the blood already staining her clothes.

She knelt on a branch and used her chakra to heal the gash, closing up the wound easily, but her sleeve was still drenched in red. She looked at it and sighed in annoyance.

When she was about to start scouting the area again, she noticed a dark splatter of red on the grass across her. She paused. The pools of blood created a path deeper into the forest.

"Might as well," she said, following the trail from the trees.

She found herself in a clearing that was undisturbed and almost peaceful. She couldn't help but feel that there was something off about this place though, an odd feeling of unease twisting in her gut. She shook her head and examined the place, eyes immediately zoning in on the face of a dead man.

From what she could see, the corpse in front of her had the eyes of someone who'd seen pure horror before his death. His eyes were wide and his face was engraved with lines of fear. The expression sickened her, reminding her too much of her comrades she'd seen fall in battle, but she leapt down to take a closer look anyway.

She placed the back of her hand on his skin, pouring her chakra into his body to scan his injuries, and furrowed her brows in worry when she felt traces of his quickly diminishing chakra latching onto hers.

The body felt fresh — very fresh. No longer than eight minutes, she would guess. Instantly, she tensed, eyes darting around in caution. She'd have to be quick.

She coated her hands in makeshift chakra scalpels and cut off the body's unusual clothing which she only spent a few seconds wondering about.

He wasn't a ninja, nor a samurai considering his lack of armour, but he definitely couldn't be a civilian. No civilian would have callouses on their hands or scars across their skin. No civilian would be armed with those strange blades either. She tilted her head, trying to categorise him, but stopped when the final layer of cloth fell the ground.

Her hands covered her mouth in horror.

"What the..."

Sakura widened her eyes in surprise and shock, bile rising up her throat. She swallowed, heart beginning to pound again with an emotion she'd come to detest — fear. She closed her eyes, the sight a gruesome contrast to the peaceful land around her.

Shakily, she palmed the man's cheek, slowly opening her eyes with a final steady sigh. She steeled her eyes and prepared to examine him.

He was completely severed in half.

She sanitised her hands using a quick jutsu and peered closer, gently pushing away the arm that rested on his stomach. It was nothing she'd ever seen before, and she'd seen more than she would ever wish on anyone.

It was as though someone, or thing, bit off a chunk of him and left him to die. There were teeth-like marks scattered all over him, too large to be anything human. Intestines spilled out of his body, a disturbing dark red staining the ground.

She shivered, but not from the cold that nipped her skin. She held her breath as the smell of flesh wafted into the air, scrunching her nose. Only years of working as a medic stopped her from gagging.

Respectfully, Sakura closed his blank eyes and whispered a silent prayer. Whoever or whatever did this was beyond cruel.

"I'm sorry." She swallowed.

She was about to leave, too disgusted to stay any longer, but spotted a green cape a few feet away. She looked at, hesitantly walking over. It was fairly clean, and would keep her warm. The design was tacky but at least it looked comfortable. It wasn't like the man would use it anyway.

She took it, ignoring the guilt and discomfort that rose up as she accidentally looked at the body again, and wrapped it around her neck.

She spared a last glance at the corpse, a foreign feeling of fear tightening itself in her heart, and jumped back to the tops of the trees.

* * *

 **Author's Note** **: This story was inspired by _Alstroemeria_ , a currently very short ongoing crossover by _AyakaSakurai_ which I absolutely adore and hope you check out! I've received her approval a long time ago so I'm happy to finally post this! Also, please let me know if you find any mistakes. I did check this chapter several times but after rereading a piece of text over and over, even obvious mistakes are hard to spot. Anyway** **, I hope you enjoyed reading! I would love to hear some feedback :)**


	2. II: Giants

**New Territory: Chapter Two (27/07/17)**

 **II: Giants**

* * *

 _"Shit. Sakura-chan, hide!" Sakura scrambled up, her wide eyes quickly scanning the situation. The candlelight flickered in the dimly lit cave, revealing its few inhabitants that wore worn faces of surprise and despair. It was chaos, everyone running in panic._

 _Sakura found the blond Jinchūriki easily, but she gasped when she noticed the large gash on his arm. Her inner-medic yearned to help him despite the disarray around them._

 _"Naruto? What's going on? I'll heal you!"_

 _"No! I said hide!_ He's _here. He's already captured_ her _! I don't want to lose you too!"_

 _Her world froze, everything suddenly moving in slow motion. She felt dizzy, her heart beating a mile a minute. Her senses dulled, her mind reduced to broken thoughts that spoke one message._

 _There was only one other kunoichi in their group, and that was..._

 _"... Her? S-Surely you don't mean..." She fell to the ground, hands shaking. Tears pooled up in the corners of her eyes, her vision blurring. "N-No, I saw her... I just, I-I spoke to her... No!" She slammed her fists on the ground, letting out a gut-wrenching sob that ricocheted off the cave walls. "No, you're lying! She was next to me! I-I, she, oh god. She's dead. She's dead."_

 _Another one was captured. Another one was lost forever. But this time, it wasn't just anyone._

 _It was her best friend._

 _Yamanaka Ino._

 _"Sakura! Please get up!"_

* * *

She didn't even know how she stumbled across the giant. She'd been casually strolling through the forest, still slightly disturbed by the corpse, when a large being thrice her size stumbled out in front of her from behind the thick trees without any warning.

She'd frozen, the sight of an impossibly tall giant stunning her into complete confusion and stillness. She stared at its glinting eyes for five tense seconds, apprehensively waiting for a reaction, but it didn't say anything, seemingly content at observing her. An uncomfortable feeling of unease crept into her stomach, her instincts telling her to run away but her feet wouldn't move.

Everything was silent, everything was still, and then a large grin stretched its wide cheeks.

Faintly, she noticed the dried red that was splattered on its chest. She saw its dirty blond hair that was soaked a disgusting crimson, and only then did Sakura finally snap back to reality. Her instincts kicked in, getting over the initial shock.

With a curse, she drew her kunai and shuriken. She twitched in anticipation, her hands itching to fight, waiting for it to make its attack. It slowly started to walk towards her, reaching out for her with pudgy pale fingers.

 _It's not quick_ , she didn't take long to realise _, it's even slower than genin! And it's stupid. This shouldn't be hard._

All things considered, the prospect of a gender-less human triple her size didn't scare her so much as confuse her. She even spent a few minutes circling it, observing its behaviour out of sheer curiousity.

It was embarrassingly slow at processing information, taking a full ten seconds just to notice she'd gotten behind it. Not to mention it didn't seem to understand anything, learning absolutely nothing about her battle movements and patterns considering it kept uselessly trying to smash her into the ground.

A few minutes later, she grew tired.

"I should end this. Clearly I'm not getting anything from this thing."

She threw chakra-infused shuriken directly at its chest. They sliced through the air, easily embedding itself into the heart of the beast. Sakura slowed down, confident that it was dead when she saw the weapons tear through it's back and hit the tree behind it with a dull _thud_.

The force of the weapons made the 7-metre tall beast fall to the ground. It went completely still.

"It's dead," she nodded to herself. She relaxed a fraction and slightly moved closer, peering at it curiously.

What she didn't expect, though, was for its free hand to swipe at her side.

Pain erupted from her torso, and she winced, hissing. She didn't have time to inspect the injury so she could only hope it wasn't anything serious. Her eyes widened when she saw that the giant was pushing itself back upright.

"W-What...?"

She froze, staring at it with disbelief in her emerald eyes. Her heart pounded, hands clutching the kunai tight enough to turn her blood-stained knuckles white. She couldn't think. She couldn't breathe. She could only stare as it looked at her and gave her its signature toothy grin. The small hole in its chest evaporated until it looked as though she hadn't even touched it.

All carelessness left her in that single moment.

"That's not possible... Only Tsunade-sama and I can do something remotely close to that, but this _thing_ doesn't even have any chakra!"

She didn't have time to theorise, barely avoiding the large hand that suddenly crushed the ground beside her. She flipped back, throwing the weapons in her hand, and ran around the small clearing to try get behind the beast.

For hours, she dodged, swerved and turned, hopelessly searching for a weakness. She wasn't even sure if the mindless giant had one, watching in horror as the deep gash on its thigh healed within seconds. Her simple curiousity took no time to escalate into sheer _panic_.

She pumped chakra into her fists and smashed the ground in hopes of stopping the giant in its tracks. She almost cried out in anger when it simply got back onto its feet, splinters of rocks dissolving, and went after her again.

It looked like a monster from a child's nightmares, beady eyes flashing a crimson red.

"Fuck," she swore, sparing a quick glance over her shoulder. There was no where to run, the open field behind her a terrible choice over the safety and mobility of the forest.

She'd used up all of her weapons too, a single kunai and shuriken in her thigh pockets that she didn't want to waste. Her jutsus weren't working either, whole limbs regenerating faster than she could obliterate them.

She clenched her teeth and debated running, but quickly scraped the idea. It was better to deal with the problem now than to regret it later, just in case there were more of these giants prowling around. The idea was still an option though, and it was looking more and more tempting as her patience dwindled.

The fact that worried her the most, though, was the lack of chakra it had. Every life-form, even plants and trees, contained traces of chakra whether big or small, and that included the come-alive shinobi during the war too.

Maybe that's why it refused to die, because without chakra it wasn't even alive in the first place. Or maybe she was still hazy from whatever happened the night before and couldn't pinpoint its chakra out of sheer tiredness. Either way, it was unsettling.

The giant came closer, forcing her to move back until she hit the edge of the forest where the trees were sparse and weak. She had no other choice than to retreat here, and could only hope that it wouldn't catch her.

Her breaths deepened, exhaustion finally catching up to her. She looked up, the sky already turning a dark orange. It was already dawn? She didn't even notice.

She closed her eyes and exhaled loudly, opening her eyes when she felt the tree sway dangerously. She grit her teeth, sticking onto the branches with the little pool of energy she had left. She was tired, dangerously so, and she knew that.

 _This is bad._

Suddenly, she heard a noise. It wasn't like the quiet rumbling of the giant, nor was it the subtle rustle of a bird making its way to its nest.

It sounded _human_.

She stretched out her chakra and lifted her eyebrows in worry when she could feel an unfamiliar chakra signature hum loudly behind the thick veil of trees, completely undeveloped and unconcealed. Sakura didn't know whether to be more amused or concerned at their pathetic attempt at hiding, but considering she was on the brink of complete and total chakra exhaustion, she reckoned the latter was more appropriate. She ignored her drowsiness and tensed, waiting for any attack.

The signature wavered, as though they didn't know whether to stay or leave, but soon the person was running away. Their chakra gradually faded into the distance, until she couldn't feel them any more.

 _Come back,_ she internally groaned, although rationally she knew that it would most likely be bad if they did. _Who are you? Can you tell me where I am? Do you know what that giant is?_

She wanted to chase after them, but knew that she wasn't in any condition to fight if they decided that she was an enemy. She was a little concerned though, hoping that the person didn't retreat in order to gather a group to ambush her. Or maybe they just left because she looked like she wasn't worth it, already half-dead. It would save them the trouble considering she wasn't planning on tracking them down any time soon.

She was so focused on the run-away that she hardly noticed her chakra grip on the branch slipping.

The kunoichi gasped, her foot slipping off the tree. She reached out, desperately trying to hold onto anything, _anything,_ but her fingers missed the branches by a fraction of an inch. She didn't want to look down, clenching her eyes tightly as she imagined the large set of teeth beneath her, mouth wide with eagerness. She imagined the saliva and drool and _blood_ that stained its mouth and felt chills run up her spine.

She'd realised it sometime during the fight. It didn't take her long to link the corpse with the giant, but she'd come close to throwing up when the situation had hit her. This thing wasn't just trying to kill her. It was trying to _devour_ her.

And it was about to succeed.

Her senses suddenly felt amplified. The sound of the birds, the sight of the greenery, the wind whooshing through her ears in a surreal melody that was mocking her with its calmness. "I don't want to die..." She sobbed. Her heart pounded, her breaths coming out in short gasps.

 _I'm sorry_ _Okaa-san, Otou-san. I'm sorry, Naruto. I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry._

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 **Author's Note : How do you like the story so far? What do you think happened to Sakura that made her come into this world? I can either be really cruel or merciful to Sakura in the next chapter. Thank you guys for the positive feedback that honestly makes me happy and love what I'm writing. I'm so so glad that I'm able to write a story that my readers enjoy! Thank you, again! :) **


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